Editorial Reviews

Award-winning writer and criminologist Daniel P. Mears has done it again! In Out-of-Control Criminal Justice, he has given us a piercing, deliberative road-map for taking back our criminal justice system and delivering the crime reduction and justice—and, yes, cost savings—that American citizens expect and politicians and policymakers need to make good on. —Brandon C. Welsh, Northeastern University

Critics are often quick to point out the failures of American criminal justice policy, including mass incarceration, mandatory sentencing, and tough-on-crime judges and prosecutors. Rarely do they direct us to viable solutions. This is where Dan Mears parts company with most. In Out-of-Control Criminal Justice, Mears provides a framework for comprehensive, systemic, evidence-based policy change premised on a systems-focused view of criminal justice. Mears has provided the key missing piece for implementing true, comprehensive change in an extraordinarily complex criminal justice system. The promise of this approach is enhanced public safety, accountability, and cost efficiency. This book is essential reading for anyone interested in fundamental change in the American criminal justice system, including policy analysts, policy makers, practitioners, researchers, criminal justice experts, academics, and students of criminal justice. —William R. Kelly, University of Texas, Austin

“Criminal justice system”—no phrase is more often voiced and less often understood. In a remarkable scholarly achievement, Daniel P. Mears rectifies this knowledge gap, illuminating what makes our current system “out-of-control” and offering theoretically informed and evidence-based ideas on how to fix it. Comprehensive in scope and clearly written, this volume should sit on every criminologist’s shelf and be assigned in any course that seeks to understand and improve criminal justice. —Francis T. Cullen, Distinguished Research Professor Emeritus, School of Criminal Justice, University of Cincinnati

No one writes more clearly or persuasively about the current state of the criminal justice system than Daniel P. Mears. Out-of-Control Criminal Justice is carefully grounded in a systems approach to the diagnosis of the problem and its solution. Every serious student of the criminal justice system, including practitioners and politicians, should pay careful attention to this work. This book has the potential to be truly transformative. —Scott Decker, Foundation Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Arizona State University